Essentials for a Successful Literature Review Search Strategy

Your search strategy is the foundation of your literature review. If this is flawed, the entire review can collapse. However, many decisions need to be made at this stage, each requiring careful consideration.

Here are 5 essentials for constructing your literature review search strategy

1. Start with a focused question

A well-defined question is the cornerstone of your literature review. It sets the direction and scope of your research, ensuring that your efforts are targeted and relevant.

Structured approaches: Utilise frameworks like PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome), SPICE (Setting, Perspective, Intervention, Comparison, Evaluation), and SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type) to formulate a clear and focused question.

Example: If you're investigating the impact of a new drug on heart disease, a PICO question might be: "In adults with heart disease (Population), does the new drug (Intervention) compared to existing treatments (Comparison) improve survival rates (Outcome)?"

2. Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Clear criteria help you systematically screen papers and decide what to include in your review. This ensures that your review remains focused and manageable.

Creating criteria: Define your criteria based on your research question. Consider factors like publication date, study design, population characteristics, and geographical location.

Example: For a review on heart disease treatments, you might exclude studies that are more than ten years old or those that focus on pediatric populations

3. Search terms

Effective search terms are required for retrieving relevant papers. They are your primary tools when using various databases.

Basics for effective search terms:

• Boolean operators: Use AND, OR, and NOT to refine your searches. For instance, "heart attack AND treatment" will yield different results than "heart attack OR treatment."

• Truncation and wildcards: Use symbols like and ? to include variations of a word. For example, "therap" will search for therapy, therapies, therapist, etc.

• Parentheses: Group terms to control the search logic. For example, “(heart attack OR myocardial infarction) AND treatment" ensures that you capture studies using either term for heart attack.

Truncation and wildcards may vary depending on the database you use.

4.  Databases

Relying on a single database can limit the breadth and depth of your literature review. Different databases cover different journals and types of publications.

Diverse database use: Incorporate multiple databases like PubMed, Cochrane Library, and subject-specific databases relevant to your field.

Next week, I’ll specifically discuss which databases to use, when, and why.

Golden rules for each step

• Justify every decision: Ensure that every choice you make, from selecting search terms to defining inclusion criteria, is well-justified and aligns with your research objectives.

• Document every step: Documentation of your search strategy enhances the transparency and reproducibility of your literature review. Record the databases used, search terms, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and any modifications made along the way.

Take home message

By following these steps, you can create a robust search strategy for your literature review. Defining your research question, setting clear inclusion and exclusion criteria, developing effective search terms, selecting the right databases, and documenting your process are all essential to conducting a thorough and unbiased literature review.

Highlight Reel

Checkout my Youtube video where I briefly explain how to develop an effective search strategy. 🎓

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